The inventive concept described herein generally relates to data storage devices and, more particularly, complex semiconductor devices configured for use in mobile equipment.
Cellular telephones were once used only to exchange calls and text messages, while Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and laptop computers served as portable computational platforms. Contemporary “mobile devices” like smartphones, tablet PCs or similar portable devices that combine telecommunications and computational functionality are capable of running a enormous variety of applications. Among other resource demands placed upon mobile devices by sophisticated applications, considerable data storage memory is required. However, conventional memory devices including single chip and multiple chips mounted within a single integrated circuit (IC) package are simply not able to meet the demands of emerging mobile devices.
Accordingly, memory devices that combine a number of memory chips with a controller have been used more recently. The collective packaging of multiple memory chips with a controller is well known in the art. Various multi-chip packages or embedded multimedia cards (hereinafter referred to as “eMMC”) are examples of such semiconductor devices.
In such a semiconductor device, a multi-chip package (hereinafter referred to as “MCP”) with a plurality of stacked memory chips may be connected to an external host through the controller within the eMMC. As a result, it is difficult to efficiently control this type of semiconductor device and verify operations within it. Moreover, since the constituent MCP as well as the eMMC must be separately tested prior to shipment, overall fabrication efficiency for the semiconductor device is rather low.